As one of the leading medical staffing agencies in Sacramento, CA, Pacific MedStaff knows when it comes to medical billing, employee competence is critical to the success of your facility. After all, without efficient billers, you can’t properly manage costs, take advantage of operational efficiency, integrate financial information and build an accurate data infrastructure, and ensure your facility is in code compliance. Getting the best result starts with hiring top medical billers. So how do you find them? Follow these tips to start:

Tip #1: Ask for referrals.

One of the best places to start when hiring medical billers is to ask your existing staff for referrals. Medical billers know a lot of other medical billers and, as a result, one employee may be able to refer you to a top-notch biller. You may even want to create a referral program that rewards employees for referring candidates that you decide to hire.

Tip #2: Look in the right places.

Besides referrals, other sources for great medical billing candidates include medical billers’ associations, as well as local training programs, technical schools and community colleges. You can also use general job board sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. Be sure to post your openings on any social media profiles your facility has, such as Twitter and Facebook. Doing so makes it easy for staff members to “share” your facility’s available medical billing jobs.

Tip #3: Promote your compensation package.

Medical billers are in high demand. In order to attract the best ones, you need to give them an incentive to work at your facility. So what makes you different – and better – as an employer? Besides hourly rate, be sure to promote other compensation, such as health insurance, retirement plans, vacation time, and any other benefits your facility offers to employees. Good benefits can be the difference between attracting mediocre candidates and outstanding ones.

Tip #4: Test skills.

Don’t simply rely on what a medical billing candidate tells you about their skill set. Test them in order to verify that they’re competent and knowledgeable about medical billing. You can develop a simple test that asks critical questions, such as “What does COB mean?” and “What’s your understanding of the birthday rule?” If they can’t answer these basic questions, then clearly they’re not the right candidate for you.

Tip #5: Check references and verify credentials.

Once you have a few top candidates you’re interested in hiring, ask each one to provide three references. Require that at least two be from past managers. It’s extremely telling if a candidate is reluctant to give you references from those who have supervised them in the past.

When you do call references, ask more than “yes” or “no” questions. Ask questions like: “If you could hire this person again, would you?” These will help you dig deeper and get behind the candidate mask. Also, don’t forget to verify credentials, such as the Certified Professional Coder (CPC) designation, before making an offer.

If you need more help hiring top-notch medical billers in the Sacramento area, call Pacific MedStaff. As one of the leading medical staffing agencies in Sacramento, CA, we can shorten your search for industry leading talent in a variety of medical administrative positions, including medical billing and coding. Contact us today to learn more.